


Chemical burn, did it myself

by InterstellarVagabond



Category: The Last of Us, The Last of Us 2 - Fandom
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, TLOU2 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24803407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InterstellarVagabond/pseuds/InterstellarVagabond
Summary: Dina didn't believe it, but Ellie really had a bite under that burn. She'd done it herself and Joel had walked in at the worst possible time and... freaked out less than she expected.
Relationships: Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 159





	Chemical burn, did it myself

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not even done with the fucking game yet but I had to write this holy shit I'm already feeling so much

Ellie handled the bottle carefully, a glove on the hand holding it.

_ Yeah, I wanna burn the bite off, not my whole fucking arm,  _ she thought to herself, despite chuckling at how ridiculous it seemed to be carefully hurting herself.

See, the weather was starting to get warmer. Summer, tank top season, short sleeve season,  _ "hey please don't shoot me in the head and ask questions later when you see my arm" _ season, and she couldn't keep hiding this shit under jacket sleeves forever.

She held her breath as she poured and as soon as the stuff hit her skin she had to stifle a cry of pain.

_ Mildly acidic my ass, fucking… SHIT! _

The sound after the muffled swearing and screaming was even worse.

"Ellie? You in here?"

_ Shit, Joel, not now! _

She stayed quiet, hoping he'd go away, but she'd dug her own grave spending so much time with her headphones in and her door unlocked. Joel usually took that as a sign that he was welcome just unheard. It was cute sometimes, but right now the pain and the fear of him seeing her like this made his little invasive habit really piss her off.

"Ellie?" His voice was in the building now, and she was turning on the sink to wash off the remnants of the chemicals, so she knew he'd heard that.

"There you are, I was- holy shit,  _ Ellie _ ." He ran over to her, grabbing for her arm. She shouldered him out of the way just before he got a handful of acid. "What the hell are you doin'?" He asked, his voice that panicked kind of mad he got.

"I'm just-  _ fuck! _ I'm just getting rid of that Goddamn bite!" She cried out, and her arm instinctively went to curl up by her chest, but Joel grabbed it carefully this time and held it under the water.

"Jesus Christ, Ellie…" he still sounded afraid-mad but he didn't say anything else. He hadn't really been as angry with her lately, had laid off a lot. She knew it was because he'd lied to her, so it was the least he could do letting her get away with shit now and then.

A few minutes later Ellie was sitting in the couch hissing in pain as Joel wrapped a bandage around her arm.

"You… you shouldn't have done this alone," he said.

"... sorry," she said, more sulking than apologizing.

"You know there's other ways to cover shit up?" He huffed. "Just… get a damn tattoo or something."

"Right, yeah, cause I know a lot of tattoo artists," she shot back. "And when they ask what design I want I just say 'whatever covers up an infected bite' right?"

He sighed and shook his head. "Alright, yeah…" 

They were both silent for a moment while Joel finished up. Then after staring at the bandage a moment he stood up. 

"I'm gonna go get you some painkillers, so you start thinking of a reason why you need them, alright?" 

"Whiskey's not as locked down," she pointed out innocently.

"Pfft, yeah, watch it." He snorted out a laugh. His face softened a bit looking at her. "Ellie I… you don't have to do everything alone."

"And that's coming from you?" She teased, but her smile faded. "Yeah… thanks, Joel. I'll uh… I'll remember that next time I try to remove three inches of flesh."


End file.
